Rejected DLC
by SaphyMarie
Summary: A series of mini stories of life in the Mass Effect universe through the eyes of all the different characters.
1. Kasumi's Reflection

**Kasumi locked the door to the women's bathroom and stared at herself in the mirror. She stared blankly at her eyes, shining from under the dark hood she wore day after day. She thought about changing it up, maybe even putting on that 'come hither' hood for Jacob. Kasumi laughed at herself, and she made it a good laugh. It would have to last a long time, her laugh. She shook her head and went back to reflecting on her appearance. She looked at herself leaning over the sink, then stood up straight, sucked in her stomach and smiled at her reflection. Then she slumped back over. No, that was not a good look on her. She took her hood off of her head and ran her fingers through her hair. "Now smile pretty!" she told herself as she put her hands on her hips and did her sideways suck-in-her-stomach stance. A little better, she was getting there, but not good enough. She took in a deep breath and sighed at herself. Kasumi didn't believe she was too much to look at in the first place, why now did she feel like making herself pretty in the mirror? **

Because this is the last time I may see my reflection.

Kasumi cringed at the thought and looked around the bathroom as if someone had suggested it. When she was sure she was alone, she leaned against the sink and slid down. Kasumi slid slowly down until she was sitting in the fetal position on the floor and she started to cry. Why? Why me? Why us? So many questions, and she knew the answers. Right when she had met the notorious commander, she knew something amazing would happen. Something amazing was happening all right, but not this. Not something this.. Dangerous. Kasumi had been put in danger countless times, but nothing like this, not like the Reapers. She would much rather break into a museum and take a priceless piece of art, maybe something by Flora, the elcor artist was getting pretty big now, and it's (?) pieces were getting valuable. Kasumi wiped her eyes and tried to make herself laugh again, but it came out as horrible sobs and she ended up crying harder at the attempt. She was glad she locked the door, anyone who might have been walking by would probably have come inside and maybe even tried to console her. No, that's the last thing Kasumi wanted. No one was going to help her with this. Hell, what was there to help with? No one could help her now, they were all just as damned as she was.

There was a knock on the bathroom door and Kasumi tossed her pistol at the door and shouted at the person on the other side.

"Its occupied!"

Kasumi waited, but they never did knock again. Good. She didn't want anyone to see her like this. This was her moment, this was the only time she could break that strong face she gave everyone so that she could get her stress out. Stress was bad, it distracted you. If you were distracted when you were stealing, you got captured and thrown in jail. If you got distracted fighting Reapers, you died. Or worse, you got indoctrinated. Kasumi shivered at the thought of being just like the Keepers or the Protheans, beings that were alive, but they weren't... Living. They went on like all synthetics do, just doing things for a higher, more intelligent power. That's not the ideal way she planned on living the rest of her life, but when this mission was over, that was a very possible outcome. Normally the thought would give her adrenaline to push forward, to bring out the best of her abilities, but... No, not with so much hanging from the ballots. Not only did she have her life to worry about, she had her teammates lives.. She had the galaxy's lives in her hands with this mission. No, that's too much. It's not fair, she was just a simple thief, then Cerberus had to come scout her out for the most dangerous mission the galaxy had ever seen. But that wasn't the hardest part of the mission. The hardest part is the fact that her Commander has more faith in her abilities than she did.

Commander Shepard was no man to take lightly- he knew talent when he saw it, hell, the man is practically exploding with leadership and weaponry skills. Commander Shepard was an artist on the battlefield, and that would be one work of art Kasumi could never steal no matter how hard she tried.

The knock on the door came back and Kasumi rolled her eyes.

"I TOLD YOU IT WAS OCCUPIED! I WOULD LIKE TO USE THE REST ROOM IN PEACE!"

She waited again for another knock, but it seemed like the person had left.

"People need to get the message, I want to be alone! I'm going to DIE on this mission... Okay, I don't know that for certain, but... There's such a high probability..." Kasumi said, slumping back down into her poor form. Why was no one else having this little self preservation trip? Was she the only one worried about her life?

Maybe you are, because your the only person who doesn't believe we can pull this off.

Kasumi sat up straight. That made a whole lot of sense! She hadn't been on this Normandy crew as long as others had, like Garrus or Tali. No, she had just met the commander, she had only been on a few missions with him, and that's what she was supposed to make hear assumption on? Those few missions? ... If she were to make the assumption on her survival with those few missions, she knew she would survive. The commander has dealt with Reapers longer than she had, and as far as Kasumi could tell, he was good at it. Really good. When they infiltrated the Collector ship, and they were faced with a variety of Collector drones, Shepard handled himself... Amazingly. She felt the hope rise in her chest. Maybe she could do this... Maybe she could rise up to this challenge the commander gave her. She's good at infiltrating, she's perfect with stealth and rocks the hood if she does say so herself. She picked herself up off the ground and started back into the mirror and smiled at herself. She slowly raised her hood back over her head.

"I make a pact right here, as a master thief. I solemnly swear to make the Collectors go through hell to get us. I solemnly swear to keep my cool in this hard battle, and to never falter. This isn't for me, but for my crew mates who are depending on me, waiting for me to go out there and do my thing. I will give the Reapers a taste of what this galaxy has to offer them, and I will destroy any enemy in my path that I may see. .. I also swear to follow Commander Shepard, wherever he may force us to go. Crawling through the smallest duct, working our way through the biggest maze, or dying in front of my enemies."

Kasumi straightened up and put her hands on her hips, turned sideways, sucked in her stomach, and smiled.

"Smile pretty, gorgeous, and get ready to die!"

Just as she had said it, the knock came on the bathroom door with a vengeance. Kasumi whipped her head to the side and slowly walked backwards from the door as the banging kept coming. Suddenly, the door caved in, and there stood Commander Shepard with Garrus and a rocket launcher.

A lot of things passed through Kasumi's mind at that moment, probably some really good things to say, but only one thing came out of her mouth.

"This is the women's bathroom Commander."

Garrus and Shepard just stared at her, the whole awkward moment dragged on for seconds, then to minutes. Kasumi started to feel uncomfortable, so she continued on with her statement to the silent human and turian.

"I expected as much from Garrus, but not you Commander."

Shepard and Garrus stared forward at Kasumi, then turned their head toward each other and let out the loudest laugh they had given each other in a long time. Kasumi giggled with them, and let out a full blown laugh with the boys. As Garrus wiped the tears from his eyes, the commander struggled to explain to Kasumi what was going on between bouts of laughter.

"All we could.. All we could hear was you yelling... Tali saw you go in the.. In the bathroom and she wanted to make sure you were okay.." He said, straightening up, still working on controlling his laughter. In reality, it shouldn't have been that funny, but right now, it was the best joke that had happened in years.

"So Tali came to me, and I went to check on you, and all I heard was some more inaudible yelling, and so I asked Garrus what I should do, and.." he couldn't do it, Shepard burst back into laughter and left Garrus to finish the story.

"I suggested the rocket launcher, because big guns can solve all the worlds problems. So I put together this rocket launcher to rescue you,and... You didn't even need it."

Kasumi shook her head. Her hand went to her face and she started laughing again, the tears flowing from her eyes. This crew wasn't your average, everyday, run of the mill crew. All these people were special, including herself. She was ready to face the Collectors and face whatever came her way, even indoctrination. But first things first..

"Garrus, don't aim that rocket launcher at me or it's going up your..."


	2. Miranda's Bad Day

Miranda's bad day.

Miranda paced throughout her quarters on the Normandy holding her head. The normal subtle grace in her walk was destroyed by the anxiety that had her pacing in the first place. She had gotten the email earlier that day, and she really didn't think she could go through with this. The worst part of it was the Illusive Man knows she has it- he patched it through. She seriously thought about ripping him with biotics, but that wouldn't be to her advantage. No, this required concentration, it required cunning, intellect, maybe even a little humor. Most of all, however, it required her charm. She normally wasn't one to turn away from a mission that required her charm (in many different ways) but this mission had her shaking in her boots.

She couldn't go to anyone to help her either, this was all her. Besides, if she got someone to help, she knew exactly how they would react. They would look at her with teasing eyes and say 'aww' and ask her 'what are you waiting for Miranda?'

Miranda pressed head against the cool chrome walls of her room and sighed. Nope, this was a mission not even the great Commander Shepard could help her with. She stood there, leaning against the wall, and tried to find her happy place. Miranda's happy place. It involves some tea. Jasmine tea, oh yes. Then in a chiffon tea cup. One with some gold embroidered on the top. Sitting at a lovely mahogany table. Beautifully treated to look like an antique. Perfect, like Miranda. Oh yes, this was her happy place. In her happy place, she turned her head to the side to look out the bay window to the beautiful oceans of Kaje. Yes. The most beautiful oceans in the galaxy (in her opinion). Amazing. She sipped her jasmine tea from her chiffon tea cup with the gold on the top. She placed it back down on her mahogany table. Perfect. Then she heard a shuffle and looked up to see her father walk into the happy room.

A very angry Miranda's eyes shot open and she groaned. Her father even plagued her happy place. This isn't fair, it was his fault she was in this mess in the first place. She walked over to her desk and sat down to reread her email. She scanned it over completely, taking in each word and all the anxiety the brought. To say this clearly, this situation sucked. Miranda just snapped, she shot out of her desk, screamed, and pounced on her bed and started kicking wildly. She ripped the sheets off with her biotics and ripped them into tiny bits. Did that help the budget? No. Did that help her anger? Oh hell yes.

She sat up on her bed, still fuming. What was she going to do? It stressed her out to even THINK about it, let alone do what the mission required her to do. Miranda ran her fingers through her long black hair and sighed. She needed to calm down before she did anything at all. Okay, her happy place didn't work, let's try to kill things. She looked back at her bed sheets that had transformed into confetti from her biotics and decided that plan two had failed her. She didn't really have a plan three, that s usually what made her feel better. Not this time, not for something like this. She went back to pacing, and she tried to think of a strategy to do this top priority mission with, Miranda needed to get a response in as soon as possible, whether she wanted to or not. She screamed and kicked her desk, leaving a dent the size of her foot in it. Not ideal, someone would ask her about that, but at this moment, she didn't care. She was stressed, bad. Real bad.

Miranda knew she was throwing a temper tantrum, but she didn't care. How? How did she even know where to contact her? Why would the Illusive Man patch through such an unnecessary email straight to Miranda's own private mail? Did he want her to respond to this request? He knew perfectly well how she felt about it (just like this- angry and anxious) and he was evil enough to send it right on through the EDI filter. Miranda walked back over to her bed and laid down, she needed to get some sleep, bed sheets or no bed sheets. She sat on the side of her bed and programmed her omni tool to wake her up in an hour, then laid down and grabbed a pillow. Sleep was a necessity...

Miranda walked down the halls of a big mansion, it was her fathers, because all the pictures were of her and her father. It was funny though, she couldn't remember ever taking a picture with him. She carefully lifted one off the walls and gave it a sad smile. It almost looked as if she was happy in that photo. She might have been, when she was that young, too naive to see the horrible future she was going to have if she stayed here. Miranda started to put it back but stopped. A sudden surge of anger made her decide to drop the photo on the floor, letting it shatter around her feet. Miranda stomped on the photo and rubbed it I not the floor with her foot. She was never that happy, she could never be that happy- her luck would never allow that. Daddy can make her genetics perfect, but her luck was pretty horrible, thanks to him no less. Leaving the shattered remains of her happy photo behind her, she walked down the hallway. Using her biotics, she flung all the photos off the wall as she walked towards the door at the end of the hall. Daddy's room. It had to be.

She flung the lasts of the photos on to the floor, and preformed a fills strength biotic slam into the door. The door just disappeared, and showed her and empty room. The room was originally colored yellow, but the color had faded since then, the floor was stained wood, unlike the hallways tiles. The room was empty except one chair sitting in the middle, with a man sitting in it. The weird part though, was that the chair wasn't official or businesslike, it was a chair you would find in a toy room. The man sitting in the chair wasn't her father either, it was a man Miranda still recognized all too well. Short black hair, not very tall (for a man at least), and average features, oh yes, she knew this man.

"Niket? What are you doing in here?"

Niket got up out of the little chair, and stood. He didn't walk closer to Miranda, he just stood there at eye level.

"Why did you knock the photos off the wall?"

Miranda rolled her eyes. "Of all the things you could ask, THAT is what you choose?"

They stood there in silence for a moment until Niket asked again.

"Why did you knock the photos off the wall?"

Miranda shook her head. "If you must know, it killed me to see myself so happy when I shouldn't have been. I didn't know what my father was going to do to me at the time, so I let myself be happy. It was a mistake that will never happen again."

"It wasn't you. Everything in your world is so self centered that you assumed the pictures were you. Well, they weren't of you, Miri, they were pictures of Oriana."

Miranda stood in the doorway stunned to silence. Oriana looked exactly like her, of course, her genetic twin. Something still didn't add up, however.

"I took Oriana away from this God forsaken place when she was a baby, she couldn't have been in those pictures."

"Another example of your selfishness. You had no idea she wouldn't be happy here, you assumed she wouldn't be, and you took her away. I wonder if the real reason you took her away was to make sure your father was never happy."

That's it, the final straw. Miranda charged forward and lit up her biotics and gave Niket the hardest punch she could muster up in the stomach. Niket flew back and slammed against the wall. Miranda walked to him with a hard march and picked him up to her eye level by his neck.

"You listen to me, you traitor! I did what was best for Oriana, she would have been used just like I was, she was going to be in a life of complete misery! I stole her away before she could be hurt! She's NORMAL because of me, and she's happy because of me! My father would have made her a shell of a person like... Like I am..." Miranda looked down from Niket's eye as she felt the sting of tears build up at her eyes. She wasn't done though, she looked back into Niket's eyes and gave him a fierce look. "I promised when I took her to give her a happy life, and that's just what happened. She has a family and she's truly happy, something I can never be."

Niket raised an eyebrow. "You want her to be happy? Don't start something you can't finish Miri."

Miranda was about to ask him what he meant, but there was a loud beeping sounds and he disappeared.

Miranda gasped and shot up from her bed. She let her omni tool keep beeping as she got her heart rate down to normal. She took ten long, slow breaths and turned her alarm off. Lovely dream.

'Don't start something you can't finish Miri..'

Miranda looked down at her omni tool and sighed. She dialed in the number and told herself she was going to finish what she started.

"Hello? ... Oh, may I ask who's speaking? ... I would like to speak to Oriana please, she sent me an email ..."


End file.
